Boston Celtics: “Pass or Pursue” on 2 recently proposed Al Horford trades

Boston Celtics trade No. 2) C’s fill out two areas of need in 3-team deal

To us here at the site, if the Boston Celtics wind up making some moves this coming offseason via the trade market, they should strongly consider addressing the depth at both the wing and center positions, for, as we’ve witnessed over the past several years, they are the two weakest areas within the team’s rotation, not point guard.

In this second deal proposed by N.A.N, we see the C’s doing exactly this, as they are found taking part in a 3-team deal between two of their Atlantic Division rivals in the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks.

In the exchange, we see two players that we have recently discussed as being ideal trade targets for Boston this offseason in Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel making their way to eastern Massachusetts.

In the case for Burks, the veteran is a solid facilitator, fantastic catch-and-shoot talent (shot an effective field goal percentage of 61 in 2021-22), sound isolation scorer, and a quality defensive contributor with a 6-6 frame and 6-10 wingspan.

If acquired by Boston, the wing could serve as both a secondary-ball handler as well as a quality bench scoring threat to have backing up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Playing in 81 games this past season for the Knicks, the 30-year-old put up solid averages of 11.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, three dimes, and a steal per game on 40 percent shooting from deep.

As for Noel, while his campaign was plagued by injuries (seeing only 25 games of action), the eighth-year pro (technically ninth if you count his DNP rookie season) has made a name for himself as being a sound rim-runner and stout rim protector, putting up career averages of 16.2 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.8 steals, and 3.3 blocks per 100 possessions on 55 percent shooting from the floor whilst boasting a stellar Defensive Rating of 101.

His acquisition would simply be to add a player of a similar skill set to that of starting center, Robert Williams III, to have if/ when he gets injured again and is relegated to the sidelines. As we stated in one of our latest pieces discussing the concept of bringing on the 28-year-old this summer:

"Keeping things consistent when it comes to a title-hopeful squad’s gameplay is certainly something that should be highly coveted, and, considering that the pieces they have at the moment to help fill in for these vacated minutes aren’t exactly Time Lord-esque, Brad Stevens may want to look for a backup player who has a rather similar playstyle to their starting center and, should he do that, perhaps veteran big, Nerlens Noel, could be a player of interest."

Alongside these two players of interest, we see the Boston Celtics also bringing on 20-year-old power forward, Day’Ron Sharpe, who, though has produced rather quietly throughout his first season in the association (averaged 6.2 points and five rebounds on 58 percent shooting from the floor), showed enough promise during his one-and-done season at UNC to warrant him a selection in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft and has also received comparisons to veteran big man, Tristan Thompson.

While losing Al Horford for a second time would be tough, especially considering all that he’s done for the team this year, should the C’s be able to nab all of this in return, while also giving up zero draft capital in the process, they’d seriously have to consider striking on such a deal.

Verdict: Purse